Appointment of VCs for 9 public universities

A number of academicians term process unfair, seek probe

PESHAWAR: A number of highly qualified and experienced academicians who were not called for interviews for the posts of vice-chancellors for nine public sector universities have termed the process unfair and urged the authorities to probe the matter before completion of the recruitment process.

The academic and search committee, which includes distinguished academicians and is headed by former chairman of the Higher Education Commission Dr Ataur Rahman, interviewed some 65 candidates from among the 238 applicants for the prized positions on April 21 and 22.

According to sources, the committee has finalised the list of recommended candidates for every university. However, owing to the ex-Pakistan leave of the Secretary Higher Education, the list is yet to be handed over to the Higher Education Department for further processing.

“The sooner we get the list, we would process it. As the secretary is on leave till Sunday, we hope we would get the list after her arrival,” a senior officer in the Higher Education Department told The News.

Meanwhile, a number of senior academicians from different universities approached this reporter to express their concern over the initial scrutiny of candidates and the short-listing and interview process.

A BS-22 professor with brilliant academic and research record, who had been shortlisted but not called for the interview, told The News on the condition of anonymity that the process was absolutely non-transparent and totally unfair.

“A significant number of eligible, well-qualified and experienced academicians have been left out from the interview. Some candidates were called for the interview the previous evening and late at night. On the other hand, academicians with 20-30 years experience of teaching, research and administration were ignored,” he alleged.

Another professor, also in grade 22 and was lot of experience, was of the opinion that the calibre of the academic and search committee convener was of course not questionable. “However, people who did the scrutiny and short-listing for the interview misguided the decision-makers and continued the pick and choose policy as done in the past,” he claimed.

Candidates with zero administrative experience were called while those with much more experiences having the capability of attracting foreign funding from multiple sources were ignored, he maintained.

“It is indeed astonishing that candidates with distinctive academics and rich experience who were initially shortlisted in the list of 44 candidates were not called for the interview while another group with less experience was included at the very last stage simply due to political pressure,” he alleged.

There were reports that even after the completion of the short-listing several candidates who had not been shortlisted were called for interview by phone or even SMS at the eleventh hour.An official of the Higher Education Department, who was part of the process, said that only a few applicants who had reached the age of superannuation had not been called for the interview. He said later on the insistence of some members of the search committee they were called a day before the interview. He rejected the reports about political pressure as baseless.

Some other candidates who were left out termed the entire process of selection and interview as eyewash as most of the incumbent vice-chancellors were given the opportunity to continue their job.

They said the irregularities should be a matter of serious concern for the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government, which has been claiming that education and health were its top priorities.

“In this era of information technology the entire process of selection must be made transparent with proper quantification and should be only and only merit based. On the basis of the required selection criteria, candidates must be quantified with proper scoring and thereafter the process should proceed accordingly to save higher education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as it concerns the future of our coming generations,” another aggrieved professor said.

The officials at the Higher Education Department on the other hand rejected the impression that irregularities were committed in the process and termed such allegations as totally baseless. A senior official told The News that they had handed over a detailed list of all the eligible candidates to the search committee and it was then its job to do the short-listing and call the candidates for interview.

He said they too along with the secretary Higher Education Department were astonished when some of the applicants were not called for interview. “We didn’t have any say in the final short-listing. The entire process was done in a completely transparent manner,” he insisted.